Because you can measure hot air balloon leaks by looking for helium?

Obviously, GP had consumed too many carbs.

More on this:

https://news.cs.washington.edu/2013/08/14/chicken-chicken-chicken-chicken-chicken/

Thank you for that! I haven't laughed like this at an academic paper in, well, a really blooming long time.

And as a bonus, I've given the folks here at the coffee shop something to stare at. :)

The would better start to recognize peoples right to free speech.
Which includes the right of not being pestered by the government (as in: put under surveillance) for it.

That would be the Cybermen, although they tend to do those three simultaneously.

See also our Microsoft Borg icon.

Incidentally, the arctic is classified as a desert. There's very little precipitation, just like with any other desert.

Actually, 33%. They're by far the biggest single player, but aren't anywhere close to 98%. Google's share of mobile ads is larger, at 56%.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/06/13/in-online-ads-theres-google-and-then-everybody-else/ (that's 2013, but things haven't changed much in 2014, and I couldn't find a 2014 link that included both all digital and mobile ads).

For these groups: middle management, "UX" design, human resources, and everyone at or above executive level...

They get their own building, with its own network. We''ll call it location "E." The network is in no way connected to the outside world. There is no mailroom, and no delivery access to the building. All vehicles in the parking lot are to be classic Pintos. The parking lot shall be liberally equipped with speed bumps.

Developers, Manufacturing and Shipping work in another building or complex. We'll call it location "D."

Location D requires its own badges. You can't get past the lobby security installations if you don't have one. If you try, you get dumped in an unmaintained pond over-populated with carnivorous ducks carefully selected for unusually unsanitary and highly aggressive natures. To protect these wonders of evolution, the pond shall be patrolled by duck enthusiasts with fully automatic weapons.

Location D has its own network, which is firewalled at every possible level against anything, in or out, from location E, as a prophylactic measure, should location E somehow arrange for a WAN connection.

At location D, the janitorial staff shall work hand-in-hand with the mailroom to heat the building by incinerating any mail or package that isn't (a) a paycheck, or (b) items that are on a list of things previously ordered by the occupants of location D.

Location D shall have its own high quality NY pizza shop, a Dunkin Donuts, and an Orange Julius. The mailroom shall be responsible for delivery of products from these to the developer's desks, and for running out to fetch non-local take out orders. Mailroom salaries to be commensurate with consistency of their on-time, still-fresh delivery records, which shall be kept in consummate detail.

At location D, female developers shall have hot male sexataries with pole- and stripping-experience. Male developers shall have hot female sexataries with pole- and stripping-experience. Poles shall be conveniently located in and/or near all developer offices. The sexatarial pool shall have both a shallow and a deep end, a selection of diving boards at varying heights, and a suitably awesome sound system and snack bar, and it shall be located adjacent to a well-equipped workout center. Fridays shall be devoted to data collection by careful developer examination of active poles.

Location D shall have a rooftop laser tag facility with long-range light-arms. Location E shall situate all offices such that they have windows facing location D, and all location E personnel shall be required to wear lasertag suits that (with one exception) simultaneously initiate a period of physical incapacitation (locked limbs) and a significant shock. The single exception to this rule is that at location E, the vests worn by UX designers shall be equipped to deliver fatal shocks, whereas the incapacitation feature is to remain uninstalled in order to save the company money.

At location D, any occupant of an office that wishes the title "rock star" to be affixed to, or adjacent to, his or her door must demonstrate the ability to actually perform rock and roll using an actual musical instrument to a panel of rock and roll enthusiasts suitably selected from the ranks of the developers. Air guitar does not qualify. Singing ability may qualify, at the discretion of the panel. Developers so qualified shall be additionally eligible for multiple sexatarial personnel/services, a small but well-equipped stage, and their own snack counter.

All developers shall receive 1 (one) exotic car of their choice leased for them for the duration of their employment, funding for which shall be achieved by garnishing executive salaries as needed. The location D parking lot shall provide direct access to both high speed oval and full scale Nürburgring-configuration tracks. There shall be no speed bumps in the location D parking lot, however, the west extent of the lot shall be configured as a 1/4 mile track with a 1/2 mile rollout at the end.

At location D, there shall be a Lego parts acquisition department, which shall be expanded as developer needs require. All offices shall have a lego assembly and display area.

How much of that is your Gmail?

The current version of OS X is 10.10.1. (10.10 is Yosemite. They stopped using big cat names with 10.9, which was Mavericks.)

The Windows kernel version has almost never matched the marketing versions:

Windows 95: 4.0
Windows 98: 4.10
Windows ME: 4.90
Windows 2000: 5.0
Windows XP: 5.1
Windows Vista: 6.0
Windows 7: 6.1
Windows 8: 6.2
Windows 8.1: 6.3

(Note: Starting with Windows 2000, the versions are NT versions, Windows 95/98/ME are actually numbered based on the DOS Windows (as in Windows 3.1).)

That's the reason given but it makes no sense. The Windows API doesn't give out names like that. The Windows 95 version was internally identified as version 4.0. Windows 98 was version 4.10. (ME was 4.90, and a separate flag indicates if the system was Windows NT-based, allowing programs to known the difference between Windows 95 (4.0) and Windows NT 4.0.)

So that explanation makes no sense.

Even more, if you check out the documentation on getting version information, the version returned is now tied to the application manifest as of Windows 8.1 anyway. So you'll only ever get version 6.2 (Windows 8) back unless you explicitly target later version of Windows, meaning the jump to version 10 can't cause problems with older software.

This whole "Windows 9*" check thing makes no sense. Well, except for Java applications, because Sun actually built Java to pull the version number and then translate it into a string rather than expose it via any public Java API. I guess the idea was that you shouldn't need to know the OS your Java app is running on, but as anyone who's done anything with Java knows, that never actually works in practice. As far as I know that's the only case where you'd ever be doing version checks against strings under Windows.

It's not 100% certain that there's geysers on Europa, and if they exist it's likely that they're only sporadic. But it is 100% certain that they exist on Enceladus, and probably constantly.

Anyway, what I'm really wondering is: does this guy want to give extra funding to NASA for an Enceladus mission, or does he just want to rob other programs?

I've been burned before, although as a kid and in a less developed country. You also need to protect your internet line.